The thing that I think is fascinating is that Biden has always been in the pocket of the banking lobby to some degree (he is from Delaware, where most credit card depts are based) but yet he was the poorest man in the Senate and gave us the first real reform and oversight of credit card company practices.

This is Fark, so expect some mouth breather to say "SO VOTE REPUBLICAN!" to your comment. Oh, and also, since Fark has some insane manlove for Biden, expect them to attack the article fiercely.

Dwight_Yeast:Diogenes: The big reveal: Big banks control both parties.

Well this changes everything. Who knew?!

The thing that I think is fascinating is that Biden has always been in the pocket of the banking lobby to some degree (he is from Delaware, where most credit card depts are based) but yet he was the poorest man in the Senate and gave us the first real reform and oversight of credit card company practices.

Well, he still makes good coin, just lost it via bad investments probably. If you are poor and are in congress, you are either not corrupt (lol) or real bad at saving money. Since they are all corrupt, that leaves the second as the explanation

Diogenes:Yeah, of course. I'm not really trying to make a political statement there. Just being jaded. But also laughing at the idea that this is a stunning revelation. Just another schlub trying to cash in.

Agreed. Anyone who really thought Biden (or any of them) was different from the rest is a partisan moran, especially if they spent 10 minutes looking at his voting record in the senate.

Dwight_Yeast:Diogenes: The big reveal: Big banks control both parties.

Well this changes everything. Who knew?!

The thing that I think is fascinating is that Biden has always been in the pocket of the banking lobby to some degree (he is from Delaware, where most credit card depts are based) but yet he was the poorest man in the Senate and gave us the first real reform and oversight of credit card company practices.

Most businesses like regulation. With no regulation, the scummiest business in the field tends to win, so it's a nasty downhill spiral as each business tries to outcorrupt the others.

They just don't like poorly written regulations, especially ones with lots of needless work. As long as they get enough input to prevent that, they're happy to get 'reform' through. Insurance companies like Obamacare, in part because the more honest of them were already doing what it requires anyway.

Lots of people, apparently. The meme constantly floated is "Republican are EVIL, Democrats are kind-hearted but can't seem to do anything because EVIL!" The truth is a bit more complicated, and depressing.

Lots of people, apparently. The meme constantly floated is "Republican are EVIL, Democrats are kind-hearted but can't seem to do anything because EVIL!" The truth is a bit more complicated, and depressing.

Lots of people, apparently. The meme constantly floated is "Republican are EVIL, Democrats are kind-hearted but can't seem to do anything because EVIL!" The truth is a bit more complicated, and depressing.

Yep. According to most Farkers on the Politics tab, Democrats are the bastion of good against the evil Republicans. And only Republicans are evil, and any criticism of any Democrat or Democrat idea means you are an evil Republican and will be met with "SO VOTE REPUBLICAN!!"

machoprogrammer:syberpud: Diogenes: The big reveal: Big banks control both parties.

Well this changes everything. Who knew?!

Lots of people, apparently. The meme constantly floated is "Republican are EVIL, Democrats are kind-hearted but can't seem to do anything because EVIL!" The truth is a bit more complicated, and depressing.

Yep. According to most Farkers on the Politics tab, Democrats are the bastion of good against the evil Republicans. And only Republicans are evil, and any criticism of any Democrat or Democrat idea means you are an evil Republican and will be met with "SO VOTE REPUBLICAN!!"

"Later in the campaign, a twenty-three-year-old fundraising staffer got into a car with Biden with a list of names and phone numbers: 'Okay, Senator, time to do some fundraising calls,'" Connaughton writes. "Biden looked at him and said, 'Get the f**k out of the car.'"

I don't even like Biden, but I would have done the same thing. That's a terribly familiar, presumptuous tone to take.

Citrate1007:FTFA "Only a handful of people ever made it into his inner circle," he writes, adding: "I simply wasn't one of the chosen."

That about sums it up. From what I read in the article, this guy's an entitled whiner. He thought he was deserving and was upset when Biden didn't agree. While I don't like Biden, I can understand why he froze this guy out. Nothing in the article leads me to believe anything particularly negative of Biden, but it does tell me a lot about the author. I did find Biden's reaction to the book a lot classier than this guy deserved.

I like how his big complaint is that Biden wouldn't do things for him when he was a lobbyist - yet he also complains (as I do) that special interests run both parties. Never seems to connect the self-contradictory dots there.

I mean, if Biden refused to do what this guy was asking him while he was a lobbyist that's actually a GREAT endorsement of Biden as a responsible person in power.

Lunaville:Speaking of the Bird, I haven't noticed an update on the fundraising project lately. Does anyone know how the campaign to buy Biden a car for charity is going?

It is going well! There have been a couple of threads lately, but we were toning down the daily threads so as not to spam the Fark feed. We're at 14,756 with over 30 days left. You can see the campaign page here.

machoprogrammer:Dwight_Yeast: Diogenes: The big reveal: Big banks control both parties.

Well this changes everything. Who knew?!

The thing that I think is fascinating is that Biden has always been in the pocket of the banking lobby to some degree (he is from Delaware, where most credit card depts are based) but yet he was the poorest man in the Senate and gave us the first real reform and oversight of credit card company practices.

Well, he still makes good coin, just lost it via bad investments probably. If you are poor and are in congress, you are either not corrupt (lol) or real bad at saving money. Since they are all corrupt, that leaves the second as the explanation

"He tells of raising money for the senator and getting little in the way of appreciation - not even a thank-you note until he dropped a hint he wanted one"

"In my new career as a lobbyist, I dropped Biden's name shamelessly," writes Connaughton. "Perpetuating the myth that I was close to him enhanced my cachet and standing in Washington...Biden never lifted a finger for me or for one of my clients."

Connaughton briefly returned to Bidenworld in the days after the 2008 election, but quickly had to resign his position as chair of the vice-president's inaugural committee because of the new administration's tough rules on lobbyists. "It didn't seem fair," he writes.

Connaughton recounts the conversation he had with his father upon quitting the political game. 'I can't believe after all those years of blood and sweat for Biden he never even gave you a crumb,'

What a freaking whiner. Did you have a job? Then shut up about thank you notes. Never gave you a crumb? Then what is a JOB? Oh you expect him to peddle influence for you as a lobbyist and he won't? Waaaah.

"He tells of raising money for the senator and getting little in the way of appreciation - not even a thank-you note until he dropped a hint he wanted one"

"In my new career as a lobbyist, I dropped Biden's name shamelessly," writes Connaughton. "Perpetuating the myth that I was close to him enhanced my cachet and standing in Washington...Biden never lifted a finger for me or for one of my clients."

Connaughton briefly returned to Bidenworld in the days after the 2008 election, but quickly had to resign his position as chair of the vice-president's inaugural committee because of the new administration's tough rules on lobbyists. "It didn't seem fair," he writes.

Connaughton recounts the conversation he had with his father upon quitting the political game. 'I can't believe after all those years of blood and sweat for Biden he never even gave you a crumb,'

What a freaking whiner. Did you have a job? Then shut up about thank you notes. Never gave you a crumb? Then what is a JOB? Oh you expect him to peddle influence for you as a lobbyist and he won't? Waaaah.

This kid had no idea which way the wind was blowing. He wants to claim "both sides are bad" yadda yadda when it's painfully obvious that he himself is part of the problem. He wanted to cash in on his contacts.

This is Fark, so expect some mouth breather to say "SO VOTE REPUBLICAN!" to your comment. Oh, and also, since Fark has some insane manlove for Biden, expect them to attack the article fiercely.

Dwight_Yeast: Diogenes: The big reveal: Big banks control both parties.

Well this changes everything. Who knew?!

The thing that I think is fascinating is that Biden has always been in the pocket of the banking lobby to some degree (he is from Delaware, where most credit card depts are based) but yet he was the poorest man in the Senate and gave us the first real reform and oversight of credit card company practices.

Well, he still makes good coin, just lost it via bad investments probably. If you are poor and are in congress, you are either not corrupt (lol) or real bad at saving money. Since they are all corrupt, that leaves the second as the explanation

1. Get mad add at others'generalizations and dismiss them as having no points.

2. Make a sweeping generalization in response to a specific point.

What an amusing combination of replies you've got there.

On the greater topic I see more Dems work to regulate the industry than Reps, bit they are stopped both by Reps and Dems. I csnnot therefore conclude simply that both sides are the same. The problem we have in this country lies with the voters and not merely the R or D, certainly.

But there is room for challenge in the primaries, room enough for blue dogs to be given the boot or third party ideas to introduce themselves to the parties. Or third parties to stop throwing away their war chests on the presidency - which can't fix the financial system anyway.

We are a right-leaning nation of voters who have bought into calvinism. We have a president who is called a marxist for wanting to let a tax cut expire for the wealthy. That attack against him has held up among voters and hasn't pushed away too many independants despite being weapons grade stupidity. Polls show a fairly close election by popular vote, if not electoral.

If this was all merely about voting for the letter then the democratic party would never have had to swing to the right to hold seats.

Finally, folks like machoprogrammer here go after the wrong people on fark. There is no point in lambasting the informed liberal who votes democrat based on their understanding of howelections work. The real screaming and yelling should be about educating the majority of the country and motivating them to care. The liberals who he and others get so angry at for voting for Obama,instead of the green party or whatever, will happily see things move left.

The book wanders all over the place, and the chapters the author whines (and whines hard) about Biden really shine as an example of epic butthurt. It's a tale of starstruck college kid finds out that his fantasy Biden is not like the real Biden, and he doesn't really fit in with the Biden crowd but vainly thinks he should. The rest of the book is decently interesting; the chapters dealing with Biden are just insanely boring, whiny prattle that have almost nothing to do with the rest of it.

"He tells of raising money for the senator and getting little in the way of appreciation - not even a thank-you note until he dropped a hint he wanted one"

"In my new career as a lobbyist, I dropped Biden's name shamelessly," writes Connaughton. "Perpetuating the myth that I was close to him enhanced my cachet and standing in Washington...Biden never lifted a finger for me or for one of my clients."

Connaughton briefly returned to Bidenworld in the days after the 2008 election, but quickly had to resign his position as chair of the vice-president's inaugural committee because of the new administration's tough rules on lobbyists. "It didn't seem fair," he writes.

Connaughton recounts the conversation he had with his father upon quitting the political game. 'I can't believe after all those years of blood and sweat for Biden he never even gave you a crumb,'

What a freaking whiner. Did you have a job? Then shut up about thank you notes. Never gave you a crumb? Then what is a JOB? Oh you expect him to peddle influence for you as a lobbyist and he won't? Waaaah.

Yeah, I kind of like that Biden seems so hands off with former employees turned lobbyist. Hopefully Fark gives him the bird he deserves.